Browsing by Author "Papanicolaou, Stella"
Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemOpen AccessA Complementary Architecture: Enhancing the experience of Maynardville Park through a responsive architecture(2024) Shepherd, Matthew; Papanicolaou, StellaThis dissertation aims to preserve and enhance the existing narratives of Maynardville Park. The chosen site exhibits a long-established history of diverse social and cultural intricacies that all deserve careful consideration. The site presents a variety of layers within and around the park, outlining the scope of this inquiry to address the internal happenings and surrounding edges. The objective of this dissertation is to produce a type of responsive architecture that synergises with this particular context. The architectural intervention boarders the park and its urban edge and bridges these two conditions to create a more interactive space. Presenting itself with a variety of both significances and shortcomings, Maynardville Park guides the trains of thought for the theoretical, technological, and architectural positions. The proposed architectural response is meticulously tailored to the specific attributes of Maynardville Park, ensuring its relevance and timelessness. Responsive architecture, by its nature, necessitates a degree of flexibility and user agency, qualities that this design inquiry thoughtfully incorporates into its programming. It collages the various narratives to create a sense of harmony among them. In response to the physical characteristics of Maynardville, the architectural scheme develops a comprehensive urban and architectural strategy that forges multiple responsive edge conditions, designed to attract people to the site. The scheme creates a precedent for future development that addresses its context and initiates positive change for the site.
- ItemOpen AccessA Place to connect(2023) Ndungu, Shirlyn; Papanicolaou, StellaThis dissertation contributes to the discourse on the design of public space in the city. It illustrates a design approach that favours the social welfare of marginalised communities living in Cape Town in particular foreign nationals. By providing a socio- economic anchor for this marginalised community this project aims to assist with their integration into their host nations. The inquiry stems from my lived experience as a Third Culture Kid and student of architecture engaging with the subject of identity and a sense of place. Using lessons learnt from exploring the transition & reentry model of TCKs the proposal suggests ways of assisting foreign nationals in integrating into the city. The document is organised in 4 parts that reflect how ideas of identity formation can be translated into place making strategies. Key themes emerging from this proposal are hybridity, memory, liminality and transparency. I begin by portraying how the concept of hybridity can be understood through the lived experiences of TCKs. I then explore the relationship between memory and place attachment through the lens of a TCK. Ways of translating memory and hybridity are further explored in the precedent studies of The Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre and The National Museum of African American History and Culture. The architectural program and design response were reached through the analysis of immigrant settlement and integration requirements. Through mapping the city with parameters set by this study a site is selected in former District 6. The design proposal looks to suggest potential way of supporting the integration of foreign nationals whilst reviving the memory of the once culturally diverse community of District 6. The concept looks to provide spaces for cultural education and enterprise as a way of stimulating public engagement between foreign nationals and local citizens.
- ItemOpen AccessAdapting at multiple scales: Towards a contextualised adaptive reuse of disused commercial infrastructure in secondary South African cities(2018) Madolo, Bongane; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeIn the early 1990s about 50 000 m² of office space was developed in the Central Business District (CBD) of Nelspruit for the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. The office space was spread out in a number of office buildings around the CBD. Between 2003-and 2005 the Provincial Government moved out of these office buildings to an office complex on the outskirts of the CBD, as a result a portion of the CBD was left vacant. The commercial sector has not really recovered since then and the CBD is beginning to experience urban decay. With this as background the dissertation, explores regeneration of a CBD and the opportunities that lie in large scale disused concrete frame buildings in Nelspruit, a secondary South African city. Affordable housing plays an important role in the development of the project, not only because it addresses a practical need for housing in the city, but also because it starts to speak to transformation of a city that largely remains anti-poor. The exploration in-to timber construction plays an equally important role in addressing questions of making buildings differently, looking at regional industry and craft, and the use of more sustainable building material. Research in to this topic was primarily aided by a 4-week research trip to Mezimbite Forest Centre in Beira, Mozambique. The objective is not to create a blueprint on which all the buildings are to be adapted because each existing building by virtue of its context alone, is unique and has challenges that are specific to it that need to be addressed. The objective is to develop a different way of adapting large scale buildings. One that breaks the monolith, makes connections and through its material is rooted in its broader context. Ideas that are tested in 32 Bell Street, a nine-storey building in the CBD of Nelspruit. Johannesburg's regeneration is looked at as an example of regeneration because it is the best example of a South African city that has used the decline of its commercial office sector to bring about transformation to a CBD, with housing being an important part of that transformation. Johannesburg also offers some of the clues on what needs to evolve in the way office buildings are being adapted.
- ItemOpen AccessThe afterlife of megastructures in the aftermath of mega-events: the case of Cape Town Stadium(2018) Mwedzi, Alick; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeLarge scale global spectacles such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games demand infrastructure of a suitably grand magnitude - the stadium being the centrepiece of this infrastructure. However, because the mentioned events are hosted in a different location each time they take place, the stadia they leave behind often face uncertain futures, as the events and capacity for which they are originally designed are difficult to maintain following the spectacle. The intention of this dissertation is to explore how adaptive reuse can be considered as an approach towards stadia in the aftermath of global mega-events. This exploration focuses on Cape Town Stadium, a venue for the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa. The dissertation engages Cape Town Stadium in terms of an exploration into understanding the nature of stadia as very large buildings, and the challenges and opportunities adaptive reuse presents to their continued use. Cape Town stadium is understood as a robust concrete structure with a high embodied energy and a variety of spatial and environmental conditions created by contrasting deep and shallow spaces, and different engagements with external environments. These conditions present a challenge to providing the spatial and environmental requirements of an alternative programme, especially where spaces are deep, isolated, inappropriately scaled or articulated by structure. Informed by Metabolist megastructure thought, adaptive reuse is explored in an approach that regards the existing as a robust permanent structure and introduces a secondary order of architecture: more delicate and less robust - that augments the existing structure to provide for the spatial and environmental requirements of a new programme - an educational campus - introduced to occupy the underutilised portion of the Stadium.
- ItemOpen AccessBuilding resilience: a pancultural practice exploring cultures, memory & amp; modernism through hybrid and liminal condition(2022) Pournejati, Omid; Papanicolaou, StellaThis dissertation draws on the experience of the third culture kid to set up a design approach for adaptive reuse. The third culture kid is someone who has lived outside of their culture/ country of origin for majority of the developing years and as a result experiences the sense of belonging or not belonging to multiple cultures to form personal identity. The Old Castle Brewery complex in Woodstock, Cape Town offers a viable site for this exploration which involves theories of isolation and integration, hybridity, and the rhizome. A connection is made between the author's Iranian Islamic culture of origin and the site through qualities of brickwork, light and courtyards.
- ItemOpen AccessEngaging vestiges of negative social memory: from an order of segregation to linkage(2018) Wren-Sargent, Tomas; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeThe theme of this project is the architectural opportunities of spaces of negative social memory. The issue that the work focuses on specifically is the case of the former Non-White Main Line Concourse building, located on the flyover of the Cape Town Train Station precinct. The building has slowly deteriorated since the end of apartheid when its function was made redundant. Today it stands as a squalid remnant of the segregated society it was built to serve. Damaged and decaying, it provides an opportunity for powerful architectural transformation. This project establishes a value in the negative social memory that the building holds, presenting an opportunity to transform the site into a powerful architecture that encourages society to learn from the injustices the building enforced. Through understanding the spatial potentials of the building, a design intention of integration emerges, able to subvert the segregated nature of the existing. The paper locates itself as a research piece on the opportunities presented by remnants of socially and politically challenging histories.
- ItemOpen AccessErasure layering(2018) Jhupsee, Sneha; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeThis dissertation developed from an interest around sustainability and the current housing crisis within the inner-city of Cape Town. The evolution of the city has played a role in developing a layered but fragmented space that lacks a favourable density. New housing developments within the city are developer-led and market driven schemes that more often than not do not consider the rich urban and social contexts provided by the city. These schemes remove vast portions of rich urban fabric to profit from maximising bulk. While these developments do indeed add density, they lack diversity and equity. This dissertation challenges the contradiction of the positive addition of density and the negative impact of inequitable and unsustainable architecture. From a sustainable point of view the idea of continued reuse and transformation of vacant existing buildings is explored. Many existing buildings within the inner-city are not fit for their intended purpose and seen as impediments that generate unsafe spaces. These buildings have become targets for inequitable developer-led schemes as they are located on prime positioned land. This dissertation explores layering the existing by providing different layers of public and private function. The sustainability of retaining an existing building is interrogated through the lens of the value of its structure. Essentially, there is an immense amount of building stock that is underutilised and underdeveloped within the inner-city that may provide an opportunity to layer the urban fabric. This dissertation endeavours to explore a new typology that embraces density for an inclusive city through sustainable practices. The ideas of reuse, density of the city and expanding its capacity in a sensitive manner and adding to the character and rich existing urban fabric of the city are pertinent to the dissertation design. Realistic ideals such as bulk and parking as well as idealistic ideas such as how to create an equitable building in a market driven era, and everything in between, will be explored.
- ItemOpen AccessThe FACTory: Unearthing the forgotten industry of Cape Town(2018) Moll, Alex; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeThe FACTory is a research-based design project which explores the synergy between the material and the memory of a site of former industry. The setting for this scene is an abandoned concrete works in Salt River, Cape Town; which has been left to deteriorate. This dissertation proposes that, through a new architectural intervention, the concrete ruin can be assisted in telling its own story. This is a project in which the existing found object will uncover, narrate and reclaim its own industrial past, through its reprogramming, and will act as an urban catalyst within its otherwise stark context. Industrial Archaeology is the study of material evidence associated with the industrial past, and the heritage significance thereof. It is the documentation of the tangible and intangible. It is the reason a new construction method can have both material and memory value. It is a lesson that can be applied to architectural projects. Cape Town has a haphazard approach to the preservation of its industrial memory, and this project could identify a new approach in dealing with that. Through the introduction of a series of temporary spaces, The FACTory will reprogramme the site into a hub of educational leisure which unearths the industrial history of the site through haptic moments. In an area of the city which is almost certain to be regenerated in the not too distant future, this intervention will see itself as a single moment in the site's history.
- ItemOpen AccessHousing rural-urban migrants in Katutura: A transition towards a place in which "we want to stay"(2023) Valombweleni, Isai Ndakalako; Papanicolaou, StellaThe focus of this dissertation is on housing for rural-urban migrants in Katutura translated in the Otjiherero language as “a place where we do not stay”, is a former Black African township in Windhoek Namibia. Katutura is characterised by the NE51/9 house type (NE stands for Non-European, 51 stands for the year of design, and 9 for the specific type), and by the lack of social space and community cohesion that typically accompanies this type of urban settlement across Southern Africa. This urban condition contributes to a loss of identity for these new city dwellers and difficulties in integrating into their new living conditions. The purpose of the dissertation is to offer an alternative housing model that aims to facilitate a transition from rural to urban conditions. The model acknowledges the significant aspects of both rural and urban realities in a sustainable way addressing issues of identity, integration and food security. The research proposes to change the name of the suburb to Tukara (a place we want to stay) as a counter strategy towards the Apartheid government's spatial planning strategies in Katutura, which made it “a place where we do not stay”. The studies will be looking at the spatial justice theory to address the spatial inefficiency of the NE51/9 house type, as a framework for developing counter strategies for spatial justice. Flexible housing and Spatial agency principles are strategies for providing quality, and affordable housing for people of rural origins. This integration is activated through the hybridization of ways in which ruralurban migrants have adapted their NE51/9 houses to accommodate their needs with vernacular traditional practices, and ways of making from rural life. The hybridization of aspects from the rural and urban helps create a sense of identity, and belonging for rural-urban migrants in a contemporary urban environment with rapid new technological developments and globalization in the construction industry.
- ItemOpen AccessIn service, on common ground: finding commonality between user, architecture and landscape through the ritual of dining(2018) Lehabe, Valerie; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeThis research is about finding commonality between seemingly unrelated entities. It seeks to enhance an existing essential service situated on a site that brings together people of all walks of life, i.e. on common ground. By intervening at this level there is an opportunity to adapt the current situation whilst simultaneously encouraging cultural cohesion or perhaps at the very least instigatedialogue. One can assume that the intermediary realm constitutes both the interstitial (the state of being) and the liminal (the state of becoming}. It involves creating spaceswith different pluralities at play. This research situates itself in the intermediary realm by creating an intervention that blurs the boundaries between the building and its context. It also seeks to expand the parameters of Adaptive Reuse to not only intervene at the level of the object but rather adapting beyond the object. by paying close attention to all the relationships at play. The intervention expands on an existing programme situated on a terrainvague site.
- ItemOpen AccessModern Architectures: Cape Town(Modern Architectures in the Global South, 2021-06) Papanicolaou, Stella; Lehabe, Valerie; Rawoot, Maashitoh; Papanicolaou, StellaThis open textbook is a collection of modern buildings, dating from 1936 to 1987, in Cape Town, South Africa. The buildings were analysed by students of Architecture at the University of Cape Town in 2019 and presented in this book as samples from a work-in-progress inventory of Modern Architectures in the Global South. Brief descriptions of each building make them accessible to scholars of architecture for further study.
- ItemOpen AccessNecropolis: burial & afterlives in Cape Town(2023) Maggs, Alexander; Papanicolaou, StellaNecropolis is a proposal for a public burial and memorial park in Cape Town for obliterated (cremated, aquamated etc) and bone remains. It explores an architecture for the final farewell to the body and spirit of the deceased, and for personal and collective remembrance. In contrast to other South African Cities, Cape Town is unique for the popularity of cremation, which accounted for 40% of recorded burials in 2019. Architectural responses however are often piecemeal. Burial places were once part of cities' symbolic centres, and mortality understood as an inevitable spiritual journey. During modernisation however, they were exiled to cities' peripheries, far from people's everyday lives. The chosen site is in Deer Park, at the edge of the City Bowl, through which runs a perennial stream linked to the city's historical centre. The Park has a varied heritage landscape which the design situates itself beside, together constituting a landscape of remembrance. The programme explores a secular spiritual and sacred response to burial, grief and memory. The architectural language explores a stereotomics of brick, stone and rubble in dialogue with the ground and Earth. The primary methodology is speculative design, through hand sketching, photographing, mapping, collaging, modelling, digital modelling and rendering. Design thinking is supported by a varied literature review: firstly a collection of Cape Town and colonial European burial histories and practices. Secondly, a phenomenology of the ground, geology, and stone and rubble building. Thirdly, precedent studies of sacred and burial architecture, supported by analysis through drawing.
- ItemOpen AccessRuin[ed] edge[iness] ruined landscape: Inverting and resurfacing the buried ruin with the scarred landscape(2018) Kruger, Aimee Leah; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeThis dissertation focuses on the Voortrekker road strip between Salt River Circle and the Black river. It is bounded by the railway lines on the western side, and the Black River and M5 elevated freeway bridge on the eastern side of the strip. The Voortrekker road bridge over the railway line creates a blatant disconnected neighbourly association. The area is currently in a state of decay, plagued by abandoned buildings and crime. Within this focus area I have highlighted 3 key sites of interest, both for their location adjacent to defining natural and man made boundary elements, as well as their state of neglect and ruin or being underutilized. The urban strategy of this project will attempt to uplift and transform this abandoned area by stitching together the two edges of the strip with a pedestrian orientated, contrasting intervention, that inverts the existing ruin, creating a series of relief spaces within this harsh environment. The architectural intervention would address each ruin by inverting them into public space with individual responses and programs, incorporating predominantly a mixed use transport orientated development with housing and rentable spaces above and retail/ market on ground floor. All the sites will use the same technological and structural approach of a light adaptive socially performing structural frame that connects this disconnected, scarred context. The buried, dark and grungy social & material context is thus resurfaced through this light, uplifting, vertical transition. This architectural transition also carefully uses structure and tactility, with walls that grow out of the existing ruined landscape and protect the site. The social user then inhabits this structure and controls or changes their own space to suit their needs within this new vertical spatial framework.
- ItemOpen AccessSensory Stimulating Sanctuaries - Creating spaces that improve and benefit wellbeing and mental health through sensory stimulating architectural techniques(2023) Relling, Hermien; Papanicolaou, StellaThe rise of the ‘modern-day illnesses' such as anxiety, mental health struggles and issues relating to posttraumatic stress, influence people on a daily basis. I wonder how architectural techniques could be used to stimulate one's senses so as to allow for a calming feeling or create a sense of well-being and safety within a space. In this paper I complete an in-depth study that focusses on ways in which architecture could be used to benefit one's mental health by implementing trauma informed design techniques. I draw on trauma-informed design theories, phenomenology as a philosophy, as discussed by Husserl, as well as its connection with architecture by referencing the work of Juhani Pallasmaa and Peter Zumthor. Therapeutic landscapes, as well as the theory of colour and biophilia help to identify the necessary spatial and material qualities that contribute to the favourable design of wellness centres. The understanding of these studies lead to a set of design principles, as described by Christopher Alexander, that act as guide lines for the successful design of a trauma-informed healing sanctuary, rather than the institutional approach. The sensory stimulating sanctuary is located on the Upper Campus of the University of Cape Town and prioritises the mental health of students attending tertiary institutions. The site allows for a biophillic design, as the strong relationship with nature is a noticeable feature. The structural and interior design elements of the design project prioritises a trauma-informed approach and finds the balance between sanctuary and institution to result in an efficient, yet inviting, healing space.
- ItemOpen AccessSpatial overlay: valuing the existing through juxtaposition(2018) Rohiman, Wazir; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeAdaptive reuse can be viewed as a catalytic process that upgrades an existing building into its current temporal reality. This process has given rise to the practice of facadism; a practice that operates in the middle ground between two extreme approaches of either preservation or complete destruction of an existing building. Preservation is concerned primarily with the keeping of the existing building in its intact form, architectural language, tectonic and spatial qualities. New programmes demand new spatial needs, the practice of preservation leaves very little space for major intervention to take place, remaining often unsatisfactory for the new uses of the building. On the other hand, the anti-preservationist's approach leads to total disregard of the existing whereby complete demolition is likely to take place. The practice of facadism locates itself in between these two approaches. While it serves its purpose of upgrading the existing architecture, this paradoxical practice is somewhat more deceptive than pristine preservation or complete demolition. The problematic issue is that it pretends to value and retain part of the building while ignoring the set of values of the whole that the existing building has to offer. More importantly, it erases the spatial and programmatic qualities of the existing while only considering the material and physical connection between the old and the new. ln the majority of cases, this results in a severe dismembering and the gut-removal of the existing building's internal elements. The upgrading of an existing building is bound to exert major changes that entirely transform the building's image. This reality is acknowledged and regarded as unavoidable throughout the dissertation. However, when the whole and the set of values of the existing are ignored, the new intervention creates a totally alien architecture that offer no substance that can relate to the existing building. This dissertation set out to find a dialogue between the old and the new, by respecting the old without compromising on the upgrade. The aim of this dissertation covers the process of space-making that relies primarily on taking the valued elements, whether physical, spatial or programmatic from the existing to drive the design of the new intervention forward. Unlike the practice of facadism, where the process emerges from design intentions that do not value the existing, the process employed in this design dissertation frames the existing building as the starting point of the design process. The new intervention therefore originates from the spatial overlay of the existing building, where the latter becomes the main input of the design process for the former. Since the practice of facadism does not value space, the emphasis for the spatial overlay is to find the right fit between maintaining spatial qualities of the existing while juxtaposing the requirements of the new design intervention.
- ItemOpen AccessTearing the envelope: from tunnel to tower industrial typology(2018) Saville, Ivor; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, MikeThe following dissertation responds to the industrially significant Maitland/Salt River area of Cape Town, Western Cape. Over time, industrial stock has resulted in ruin due to the unpredictable reality of industry, and competing for business globally. Exploring the possibility of the area to be developed as an industrially significant urban quarter seeks to revive investment in existing industry. The revival requires a shift in business and architectural model that encourages adaptability through rethinking the scale of production/manufacture and tenancy. Current single tenancy models operate with a ground floor sprawling line of production, prioritising the machine in a controlled environment. This requires a rigid form of enclosure, defined in this research as the envelope. Research has suggested that the scale of manufacture should decrease, providing the opportunity of a hybrid, mixed-use industrial typology. The intention is to vacate space on an industrial site to cater for an interface with the public. Visual and physical connections with the local urban condition will allow the factory to contribute to the revived intention of industrial urbanism in the area. The Jensen Belts leather factory will be used as this study's existing building to be adapted. Currently the circulation of production and goods is isolated from the circulation of the public which results in the factory creating a black box surrounded by negative space in the city. Prioritising the circulation of goods creates an environment that is not conducive to human comfort - highlighting the sheltering priority of the existing factory, to house goods and not people. Focusing specifically on leather production, rethinking the connection between the circulation of goods and people establishes the industrially significant presence through the theatre of production in the city. The proposal of a future factory lies in rethinking the production line model to limit the amount of space it occupies - offering loose space for multiple tenancy. Multiple tenancy describes the hybrid typology proposed to cater for the varying needs of the Maitland context. These needs involve employment and upskilling, which are catered for in a responding Community Workshop Model. The first architectural investigation seeks to 'tear' the tightly sealed factory building envelope once the controlled production line model shifts. The second architectural enquiry is in the design of an adaptable vertical tower that houses the possible phases of needs in the typical industrial building life cycle. The tower is seen to anchor a hybrid community workshop program. The existing building and site constraints, tunnelling the production process, provides a platform to propose a strategy for a new, bold structure that shifts the program to prioritise the comfort of the user. In response to the existing controlled production line model that excludes the public, the new model seeks to expose the program to connect to the site's range of urban networks positively. The area offers a wealth of key infrastructural networks (M5 highway underpass, railway, Black River, West end of Voortrekker Road) that have resulted in spatial boundaries. With the interest of 'tearing' the factory building envelope for integration, the urban investigation seeks to establish ways of inhabiting and crossing these architectural and urban boundaries to foster connection.
- ItemOpen AccessThe upgrade of the public realm through architecture: Re-enforcing existing social practices and community connections in Wentworth, Durban(2024) Stoffels, Mariannah; Papanicolaou, StellaThe topic of my research inquiry is related to my personal narrative of being raised within the Wentworth community. This research aims to highlight the social practices and community connections which have influenced the trajectory of my life leading to my current point of university studies in architecture. Historically, my family members experienced the marginalisation and oppression, of the apartheid era, on people of colour. Although defined as coloured, in accordance with South Africa’s racial groupings, my family culturally represents as people of colour due to our multi-cultural relations. Despite being a born-free, having been born in 1998, the lingering effects of the apartheid pass laws remain seared in my family tree. Remnants of apartheid resurface through the lifestyles of aunties and uncles (the elders) with their respective job titles, locations in previously racially segregated suburbs, multi-generational living in council houses/flats, and a debilitating reference to race in terms of the apartheid law. I represent a generation of people of colour with the privilege of access to spaces and places that previous generations were denied. The amalgamation of my work, As an architectural scholar, has been dedicated to exploring the topic of inclusion and decolonisation. I argued that apartheid is a by-product of colonisation in the global south and, therefore, the term decolonisation refers to the undoing of the ramifications of both colonial and apartheid rulings. I am living my Grandparents dreams. I acknowledge the privilege I now have as a university graduate; however, it must be noted that without being awarded governmental bursaries, this privilege would not be financially possible for my family. Therefore, the narratives of the previously marginalised will echo through my work and contribute to their emancipation.